Information playback systems frequently utilize a stylus for reading signals from the surface of an information record. A stylus formed of a synthetic diamond stone and a metal shank is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,340,954 issued to Chio and Kim on July 20, 1982. In a typical assembly of a synthetic diamond (hereinafter, simply "diamond") to a shank, a manual operation involves picking and selecting the diamond and placing it in the shank using a microscope to view the components.
There is a need for handling, aligning and bonding the diamond to a metal shank in a more rapid and reliable method than presently done totally manually with visual observation.